All this is true. But
this is a non-narrative performance with a series of vignettes, raves, poems
and silly business that defy definition. It has always been
so with Howard Slowly.

The fifty minute show
is introduced by a red based plastic goblet that sits in state in a glowing
light. Yes, the cup speaks, excited to be on stage for its debut.

Howard Slowly
appears with a paper bag over his head. Silently, he weaves his quivering path
to the stage. For ten minutes he
is silent. The bag is removed.
He wears a white neutral mask. When he rips off the mask the grotesquery
begins.

What follows is a
series of naughty bits. We have several minutes of face pulling and escaping
body gases, shall we say. Then come personal
raves to the audience about school days.

The piece is becoming like the French Dada
artists of the 1920s. Abstract, irreverent, metaphorical and wicked. There are poems
about being a sperm, erections or having sex for the first time. There is a poem
about seduction spoken as he massages a wooden chair,

This leads to an
hilarious scene with a one-eyes trouser snake that looks like a child's snakey
puppet emerging from his trousers.

The material is risky and out on the edge for an audience. and the sexual
references go on and on. Armed with scissors, he snips bits from a frankfurter
tucked into his zipper. The finale is two pieces from Howard Slowly's latter days. My favourite was always,
'I Am the Acrobat of Love'.